MLIS 7505

Lee M. Hartle

Module II

Assignment 2

My Joomla Adventure

Our assignment for Module II was to set up a free Joomla demo website.  My adventure began at http://demo.joomla.org.  Little did I know at the time that Joomla was not going to cooperate.  Before this assignment I had never heard of a Content Management System (CMS), which is what Joomla is, along with other programs like WordPress and Drupal.  In a few words, a CMS is (supposedly) a quick and easy way to create and manage a website.  Many libraries across the country are successfully using them for just that purpose.  After watching the video tutorial, my assignment was to create at least two menus, two articles, and to link my articles to my menu items. 

First, I must make the comment that the video tutorial, in my opinion, was lacking in professionalism.  I believe if they put had put a little more effort in to it I may not have had so many problems.  A series of slides might have been more effective instead of trying to keep up with what the video instructor was saying and doing.  My first attempt at creating a site went relatively smoothly.  I played around with different templates, styles, and layouts.  Joomla only comes with a few templates, but you can download more from www.cloudaccess.net, including many available for purchase.  I even uploaded a few photographs of myself.  When I was done I had a simple, four page website.  However, I did not have the menus configured correctly.  When I went back to fix this Joomla would not cooperate.  So, I thought I would just start over.  I used the Clear Content button, but Joomla would not clear the content.  I got a “Front End Error, #404 Component Not Found, An Error Has Occurred” message.  So, again , I started over by using a different log in name and e-mail address, but Joomla would not cooperate.  I got e-mails from Joomla saying that an error had occurred and to try again.  So, I tried another five or six times with no success.  So, I decided to watch the video demo once again and I was finally successful in creating my website.  The only problem that I could not fix was the ordering of the menu items.  I followed directions to the letter, but still could not get them to change order.

Even though I had a lot of problems, I do feel that Joomla does make the creation of websites much easier than having to learn HTML codes.  The drop-down menus were easy to use to create articles and menus.  For me, learning Joomla had a steep learning curve.  However, I am certain that the more I read about and play around with Joomla I will be able to create websites much more easily that the pre-CMS, HTML way.  I would recommend them to any library debating whether to use them or not.